Patients in hospital wards or operating theaters from time to time require an infusion or transfusion of blood, blood products, or other fluids. In many cases, it is critical to maintain the patient's temperature at its optimal level to ensure the continued function of the patient's brain, heart, kidneys and other vital organs. For example, where a patient has lost a lot of blood or other body fluids as a result of trauma or where a patient requires replacement of large volumes of such fluids during surgery, it is critical that the replacement fluids be introduced into the patient's body at or near the patient's normal body temperature. The introduction of relatively large volumes of fluids at a low temperature has the effect of rapidly inducing hypothermia and the concomitant failure of said vital organs.
Blood and other fluids are commonly supplied in flexible containers known as intravenous (IV) bags. Typically, the bag is held in an elevated position on a pole and the contents thereof drip into the patient's veins slowly. The fluids are not normally heated because the slow rate of infusion does not result in a catastrophic lowering of body temperature, and the volume of fluid so introduced is usually quite low.
Devices for heating fluids have been developed, as have devices for pumping fluids, but the art contains no teachings or suggestions concerning combination devices that heat and pump blood in and from, respectively, containers such as IV bags.